HIGHLIGHTS

CM candidate to be decided after UP polls: Mulayam Singh

Mulayam seen as siding with his younger brother at the cost of his son.

There is no dispute in the family: Mulayam

The latest knock on the already fragile situation in Samajwadi Party was delivered by its supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today. He said the party's chief ministerial candidate will be decided by elected MLAs after the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. In effect, he has expressed a no-confidence in his son Akhilesh Yadav as the incumbent Chief Minister of the most populated state in the country.

"The chief ministerial candidate will be decided by the elected party legislatures and parliamentary board. This is our job. This is not your (media) work," he told reporters in Lucknow when asked whether Akhilesh was still the SP's chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 elections.

Mulayam's comment is a severe setback for Akhilesh, who is fighting a battle of sorts with his uncle Shivpal Yadav. Mulayam is increasingly seen as siding with his younger brother at the cost of his son.

As per the norm and tradition, the incumbent chief minister or the prime minister automatically gets projected as the face of the party in the next elections. If the party chief says the elected MLAs or MPs would choose their legislative party or parliamentary party leader, it implies that the incumbent CM or the PM respectively has lost the confidence of his leader.

For instance, after his first term in power, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was projected as UPA's face in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He was the UPA's PM candidate even in the 2014 General elections even though one was not sure whether he would have continued on the post had the Congress-led political formation won the elections. It may well have been party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi. However, Singh was still the UPA's face. Because, any other stand would have meant that Singh had lost the confidence of the party.

Just imagine, Congress president Sonia Gandhi would have said the same thing before 2014 Lok Sabha elections that Mulayam commented today. Had she said the elected UPA MPs would choose their leader, it would have meant that Singh might not have been the PM.

Secondly, such a stand also implies that the incumbent PM or CM has not performed satisfactorily.

Hence, by making a comment on SP's chief ministerial candidate, Mulayam may actually be harming Akhilesh and, in effect, the interests of his party. His remark may be construed by the voters as his displeasure in the Akhilesh government.

The Samajwadi Party seems to be in deep trouble. There are no signs of the internal feud in the Yadav family abating. Far from it, it is only exacerbating with each passing week. Even party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav is seen contributing to the non-envious situation SP finds itself in.

Mulayam may technically be right in saying that the elected legislators will choose their leader.

"There is no dispute in the family. Shivpal had met him (Akhilesh) this morning. In the last elections, votes were sought in my name but I made him (Akhilesh) the state's CM," he said.

"Kise kahan baithana hai, hum khud tai karenge (I will decide whom to place where)," he said. But, it is not a politically correct comment to make.

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